


Hospital Medicine

by W4nderingStar



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort, Gabe is a good boyfriend, Gabe is a surly patient, Jack maybe has gone a little overboard, M/M, fretting like crazy, gunshot wound, ignoring doctor's orders, jack is a mother hen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2018-10-15
Packaged: 2019-08-02 10:21:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16303340
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/W4nderingStar/pseuds/W4nderingStar
Summary: Maybe it's not so bad being laid up in the hospital with such an attentive medic close by.





	Hospital Medicine

**Author's Note:**

> A companion piece to Field Medicine, but can be read as a stand alone

 

 

**Hospital Medicine**

 

Pain, Gabe could deal with. His SEP healing usually had him back on his feet in a day. He shouldn’t be in medical, in a bed, waiting for the results of MRI scan. But what made taking a bullet to the gut worth the pain, the inconvenience, and the recovery time, was the mother hen mode it activated in Jack.  Pre-Jack, he would have been raging to get back to the front lines. Post-Jack? Well…. 

 

He coughed—once—and Jack dropped the third extra blanket he’d been settling over Gabe’s feet. 

 

“What is it? Are you all right?” Jack stared at him with wide, deer-in-the-headlight eyes. 

 

Gabe tried not to smile. “I’m fine,” he rasped. “Just, throat’s a little dry.” 

 

Jack lunged into action, crossing the tiny room to the sink in two long strides. He bent over and opened the cabinet under it. Gabe smiled as Jack’s fatigues stretched tight across his ass. God bless uniforms. Jack pulled out a small plastic cup and filled it with water. He hurried back to Gabe’s side. Gabe reached up to take it.

 

“Here, let me.” Jack didn’t even let Gabe get close before he had the cup pressed to Gabe’s lips. 

 

God. He was too adorable. Gabe sipped, then backed away. “Feel better already.” 

 

“Drink the whole thing,” Jack urged. “You lost a lot of fluids.” 

 

Gabe pointed at the IV drip beside his bed. “I know.” 

 

Jack looked at the IV as if he’d never seen it there. Even though he was the one who insisted on it. “Oh. Right. Still.” He nudged the cup back at Gabe. 

 

Gabe had to push it away. “Just needed enough to get rid of the cotton mouth.” 

 

“How are you feeling?” Jack asked. “Don’t play the tough guy. ” 

 

“I’ll let you know if something hurts,  _ oro _ . Okay?” 

 

“Pain is relative,” Jack said. He set the cup down on the little rolling tray beside the bed and began messing with the sheets for the fourth time, straightening them, smoothing them down, tucking in the corners. “What doesn’t feel too bad could be a warning sign of a larger problem. And with your elevated pain tolerance—” He stopped with his hands over Gabe’s legs. “Are you always so hot?” 

 

Gabe snort-chuckled. “I’d say so.” 

 

Jack dropped the sheets and got up in Gabe’s face. Those pretty eyes were searching his as Jack put a hand on Gabe’s forehead, brushing back his hair. 

 

“Hello,” Gabe said, trying to break Jack out of his thoughts. 

 

“Feels like a fever. I’m going to up the antibiotics to combat an infection.” 

 

“Jack.” Gabe grabbed Jack’s wrist when he went for the IV bag. “The last time you messed with that, you pissed off the nurse.” 

 

Jack’s lips pursed into a harsh line as his nostrils flared with indignity. “I told him your wound was possibly contaminated. It was a precaution.” 

 

“And the doctor told you it didn’t seem like that was the case. Why would she lie?” Gabe watched the wheels turning behind Jack’s eyes. It was nice to have someone so devoted in his corner. 

 

After a few moments, Jack let go of the bag. “Still think it could be an infection.” 

 

Gabe let go of Jack’s wrist, trailing his fingers along the back of his hand before interlacing their fingers. “I’m fine, _ hermoso _ . You’re taking amazing care of me.” 

 

Jack’s spine stiffened and he stood up straighter. “I don’t like the doctor,” he pronounced, yet again, making this the fifth time. “She’s not taking your injury seriously. Abdominal GSW’s are tricky. If that bullet shattered—” 

 

“But it didn’t, you said so yourself.” 

 

“She might have missed something.”

 

“You said you saw it yourself.” 

 

“If it lacerated one of your organs you need to be in surgery  _ now _ .” He turned toward the door. “I’m going to talk to her again.” 

 

Gabe held onto Jack’s hand and checked his retreat from the room. “Do me a favor before you go?” 

 

Jack whipped around, eyes wide again. “Anything!” 

 

Gabe wracked his mind for something that would keep Jack occupied long enough to forget about badgering the medical staff. “I’d like to lean back, but there’s too many damn pillows.” 

 

“Your wound’s bothering you. You’ve been sitting up too long. Here, I’ll help.” 

 

Jack attacked the pillows with the most gentle vigor Gabe had ever seen. One at a time, Jack slowly pried pillows out from behind Gabe’s back, slowly easing him down. Gabe grimaced as his abdominal muscles unclenched. Maybe Jack was right and he  _ had _ been sitting up too long. Jack offered his hand and Gabe took it, squeezing it as inch by annoyingly painful inch, he lowered himself to an easier angle. 

 

“Omnics can’t aim for shit, but when they do it’s a pain, am I right?” Gabe tried to humor the grim expression off Jack’s face. 

 

He opened his mouth to try and say something more, but found himself dragged down by a fog. 

 

“Shh,” Jack soothed, cupping Gabe’s cheek with a hand. “I pumped up the painkillers. Just rest, okay?” 

 

Oh, that was so... not…. His eyelids were suddenly too heavy to keep up anymore. “Tricky, Morrison.” The words felt sluggish… and…. 

  
  


Soft beeping annoyed him into wakefulness. Gabe felt like there was a blanket of fog hovering over him, keeping him pinned. He forced himself to blink. His surroundings swam into focus. It was dark. Where the hell? There was just a single lamp casting a diffused light on the…. It came back to him. Offensive push. Jack sprinting toward a downed marine. The omnic firing. Medical ward. Bullet wound. He turned his head to find Jack sitting at his side.

 

Jack had his elbows on his knees, hands folded one on top of the other, in front of his mouth. His gaze was glued to the far wall, expression distant. There were dark bags under his eyes. In that moment, it struck Gabe how much older Jack looked than his scant nineteen years. He should be in medical school, not here on the battlefield. He shouldn’t look like he had the world on his shoulders. Poor kid. 

 

Jack glanced over at him. A sunny smile broke through his cloudy expression, melting away some of the extra years off his face. “Hey.” 

 

“Hey.” Gabe did his best to return the smile. “How long was I out?” 

 

“Not long enough. I’d hoped you’d sleep through the night.”

 

“I should be back in the field. Have we got any word from higher up?” 

 

Jack nodded. “Being redeployed further west. But don’t worry about that now. We’re keeping you overnight for observation.” 

 

“We?” Gabe asked. “As in, you browbeat the medical staff into it?” 

 

Jack didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. The haunted look said it all. Gabe reached out, putting his hand on Jack’s shoulder. 

 

“Talk to me,  _ rubiecito _ . I love you taking care of me, but this is too much, even for you.” 

 

The soldier’s mask fell away, leaving a vulnerable young man bare. 

 

“I charged in first,” Jack said, the haunted look turning fearful. “I saw someone down and all I could think was to get them out of there. That bullet was mine to catch but you—” He dropped his gaze. “You’re our leader, Gabe. What would we do without you?” 

 

This wasn’t going to do at all. Gabe frowned. “Come here.” 

 

Jack scooted the chair closer. Gabe shook his head and patted the bed beside him. 

 

“No. There’s not—” 

 

“That’s an order, Soldier Seventy-six. Or would you rather I get on that chair with you?” 

 

Sheepishly, Jack rose and crawled onto the hospital bed. Gabe moved over the best he could without aggravating his wound. It was a snug fit, but it worked. Gabe put his arms around Jack, drawing him into a tight embrace. Jack curled into him, hands clutching the ugly medical gown. 

 

“Don’t you ever apologize for trying to save a life,” Gabe whispered, kissing Jack’s forehead. 

 

“But—”

 

“No buts.” Gabe rested his chin on top of Jack’s golden head and closed his eyes. “The only way any of us are going to make it through this is if we take care of each other.”

 

Jack wrapped his arms around Gabe’s back, hugging them together even tighter. “I don’t want to be the reason you die,” Jack said. “I couldn’t live with myself.” 

 

“Not going to happen,” Gabe soothed, rubbing his hands up and down Jack’s spine to comfort him. “Because we have each other’s backs.” 

 

Jack nodded. “Always.” 

 

“You trust me, right?” 

 

“More than anyone.” 

 

“Then trust me when I say; I love you Jack Francis Morrison. I’m going to do whatever I have to do to keep you safe, and I have no plans to let you fight this war alone.”

 

Jack nodded into Gabe’s chest. Some of the tension seemed to bleed out of him. Good. Gabe murmured nothing in particular in his ear for a while, until Jack’s breathing slowed and his grip relaxed. 

 

“Sleep tight,  _ mi amor _ ,” Gabe whispered. “I’ve got you.” 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> I can't stop with these two. I just want to hurt them and then watch them take care of each other.


End file.
